Chapter 1

Despair.

Despair is a strong emotion. When a person suffers from despair, the person detaches themselves from the rest of their surroundings. They don't care about anything that is happening in the world or anyone that surrounds themselves, They, especially, don't care about themselves and have no sense of preservation for themselves. The victims of despair lock themselves inside their own little world of grief; never wanting to come back to their senses. For some people, this could be taking on a new persona of themselves, and, to others, this could mean completely losing their sanity and doing the unspeakable of actions. For most people though, they just lock themselves inside their fractured sanity never wanting to come back to the new reality of what had transpired.

Lefiya had locked herself within her fractured sanity. The grief of losing someone twice had done a number to her emotional state. The first despair of losing one of her most beloved friends was bad enough, and for the cause of gaining revenge, she gained hope and sparked a new flame within herself. With the newfound hope, she wished to seek a new form of closure in finishing off those who had killed the one she loved. In doing this though, she had learned the absolute truth: Fate is crueler than anyone else.

Lefiya would once more try to overcome the odds that Fate had thrown in her way, and she tried to save this so-called "dead friend" from the cruel clutches of evil itself. But the odds, that cruel, evil Fate had placed upon her path, were more than she could overcome. Even with the help of friends and family, she couldn't save her dearly beloved. She watched her dear friend die not just once, but twice in front of her. As she lost so much, her soul couldn't handle it and the weight of despair had crushed her soul and had deeply scared her fractured sanity. She arrives at her home as she wallows in her room.

She was lost and her hope had vanished without a trace.

Hope.

Hope is the counterpart of Despair. Hope invigorates all those who wish, that are drowning in sorrow and despair, and raises them back from overwhelming despair. People glorify and symbolize Hope in the form of deities or something more literal: a Hero.

Bell Cranel is a kind and caring person. His naivety and childishness were a flaw to his character, but it gave a uniqueness to his one-of-a-kind pure soul. The boy chased a dream that his late grandfather had planted within the boy, and it began to sprout and bloom into something amazing. As the boy began his journey, he learned and faced lots of lessons, tasks, hardships, and adventures. But, one-by-one, he overcame them in his own ways alongside his new family he had created.

As time went on, his flaws transformed into his strengths. His naivety turned into hope, and his childishness turned into perseverance. And at one point, he even turned into a hypocrite to follow his own beliefs. He defied the will of the gods many times and even pushed himself to the brink of death to become something that he wished to become the most: A hero. The boy wanted to become a symbol of hope and he wanted to save everyone he possibly could. Even though he knew this was impossible, he would still try his best.

In his most recent adventure, in Knossos, he played a minor, but also important role, in defeating evil from spreading Despair throughout the rest of the world. He did this while being handicapped because he knew that he had to do this though the event left him exhausted as he fainted against a wall. He is taken home as he sleeps on the way there.

Little did he know that the fate in his role would slightly turn.

Lefiya locked herself in her room. She lost a dearly beloved, and someone she would use as a personal crutch to make herself better. Whenever she was with Filvis, her worries would dissipate, and she felt like she could do anything when she was with her. Now she's gone from this cruel, mortal world and that is one thing that Lefiya could not come to terms with. Sure, she had her other friends, but Filvis was one of her friends that she had let herself get closest to. And in return, Filvis did so in return, but now she's gone and so is Lefiya's heart.

She had placed her heart deep within the dark despair that is within her soul and locked her whole soul off from the rest of the world. She didn't want to reconnect with anyone or with anything. Filvis was the one person she cared for the most and now she's gone. The world looked bleak to her; she experienced blue days and black nights after she became a victim of despair.

Day after day had passed by as Lefiya didn't leave her room no matter what as she became an empty shell of who she was. Even though she was not completely there, that didn't mean that her body didn't function normally. Her roommate Elfy would take her to go shower and bring her food to eat. At first Lefiya wouldn't eat, and her roommate would have to force her to eat, but now Lefiya would automatically start eating by herself.

Her more relevant familia members would enter her room and try to cheer her up. Riveria, Ais, Finn, Gareth, Tione, Tiona, and even Bete tried to do something for her. But nothing worked, it was like talking to a brick wall. Eventually, the amazon sisters, with the help of Ais, had gone to the extreme and forcefully taken her outside. Being forced to go outside, Lefiya was forced to walk, albeit weakly and emotionally devoid.

Tiona, Tione, and Ais had difficulty trying to bring Lefiya to her former self, so they all had a walk outside in Orario to try to think of a plan to, once again, bring Lefiya back to her former self.

They were frustrated at the Lefiya, who was in a miserable shape.

"UUGH!" Tiona had expressed herself loudly as she tilted her head back, "How are we gonna do this!?"

"I don't know," replied a worried and dejected Tione.

Ais was visibly concerned about Lefiya who is broken from within. She tried to do her best to try to bring Lefiya back in her own way. But nothing happened.

They continued to walk down the roads of Orario.

…

Bell Cranel was completely healed from his injuries from the fight in Knossos and was ready to go out and find a new adventure to go on. He thought he would try to go into the dungeon today to try to regain his fighting skills again, especially since he was a bit rusty from his time away from the dungeon. He stopped and a different thought process popped into his head.

His Familia and his position in this Familia.

He thought about how he is the Captain of the Hestia Familia and the type of role the Captain must take. His thoughts and mindset eventually led him to seek out some friendly advice from a certain Captain that he knew about.

With that in mind, Bell went to go see Welf, who was currently in the forge smithing.

Bell got to the Forge as there was smoke coming out of the chimney and the sound of metal clanging from within.

Bell got to the door and knocked on it.

It took a minute, and after a temporary cease of clanking, Bell heard from within, "Come in!"

Bell opened the door and stepped inside the Forge as he closed the door behind him. He could see Welf forging some new upgrades for the Familia's armor. Currently, Welf was working on a new redesign for Pyonkichi. Welf was lightly banging on the armor as he would make the armor hot and do some rebuilding with extra material for the new design. Welf was dripping with sweat as he wore his casual smith clothes, but then stopped to look up to see who it was.

Welf put on a friendly smile as he was glad to see it was Bell, "Hey Bell, what's up?"

Bell returned a smile of his own, "Nothing much, Welf. I was wondering if you wanted to come do an errand with me?"

Bell looked at the armor that Welf was working on, "I can see that you're busy though, so if you don't want to, that's okay."

Welf looked at Bell and replied with a chuckle, "No! It's ok."

Welf puts down his tools and lets the armor slowly cool down on the side, "Besides, I've been working non-stop on some of our gear. a bit of a break could be good for me."

Bell gave Welf a grin as he replied, "Great."

"Yeah, just give me a few minutes to get changed," Welf told Bell as they both left the Forge to get ready.

Once both guys were ready, they headed off.'

"So where are we headed too anyways?" Welf asked Bell.

Bell simply responded, "To the Loki Familia Mansion."

"Eh?" Welf responded surprised, "Why there?"

"I just wanted to see if I can ask a favor from Finn."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Welf asked worried.

"Well, I want to at least try once; there is no harm in asking," Bell replied calmly, "Besides, I don't think Finn is the type of person to be rude about requests."

"Well, if you say so. I don't mind then," Welf replied with an acknowledging grin, "I like this new courageous you."

"Thanks," Bell smiled, but then walked slower as he picked up a few familiar voices.

"Huh, what's wrong?" Welf asked.

"Is that…," Bell started.

Suddenly, Bell saw the three girls go around the corner of a block of buildings. Bell pointed forward as Welf looked towards where he was pointing to.

Bell smiled, "This is perfect."

He started to jog toward the three ladies in front of him.

"Oy! Miss Ais, Miss Tione, and Miss Tiona!" Bell called out to them as he waved to them.

The three of them looked behind themselves and into the direction of who was calling out to them.

Bell slowed his jog as he got close to them with Welf slowly catching up to Bell.

Tiona was the first to respond with glee, "AH! It's Mr. Argonaut!"

Ais was second to respond, albeit a bit conflicted, but with a gentle smile, "Bell."

"Ah, Rabbit Foot," Tione gave a friendly smile.

"How are you three doing?" Bell asked the three ladies in a courteous response.

The three of them hesitated, looking visibly distraught.

Bell saw this and further inquired, "What's wrong?"

With that, the three ladies tell Bell and Welf about Lefiya and her current condition. The two men listened and sympathize with the ladies. Bell was the one who was most distraught out of the group, and he couldn't help himself but visibly show it. Deep inside, to a degree, he knew how it felt to be this way. Deep within, he wanted to help Lefiya out the most; he wanted to save her from the despair that she was going through. With this deep, strong emotion of determination within himself, he found a new goal: He would rescue Lefiya from her despair.

With his mind set and soul ablaze, he asked in a serious tone to the three ladies, "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

Welf, Tione, and Ais reacted in surprise as they all looked at Bell. When they saw the determination within his eyes, they all smiled back at him.

Welf was the first to go up to Bell and ask him, "Wait, what about your favor?"

Bell looked at Welf and responded, "This comes first."

Tiona interjected, "What favor?"

Bell decided to tell the other four about his request for Finn. Tiona and Ais were surprised by this, Welf was proud of Bell, and Tione was ecstatic.

"You made a right choice on choosing the Captain for advice!" Tione went up to Bell with a passionate tone and gave Bell a wink, a grin, and a thumbs up to him as she placed her right hand on his left shoulder.

Tiona and Welf were a bit weirded out, and Ais had a mix of anger, jealousy, pride, and happiness.

Bell took Tione's hand from his shoulder and reiterated with determination, "But right now, I want to help Lefiya come back to her senses."

"So, where do we begin?" asked Bell.